Memory chip designer Rambus won a $306.9 million patent infringement lawsuit
against Hynix Semiconductor Monday. A San Jose, Calif., federal jury
declared that all 10 Rambus patent claims in the case were valid and
infringed upon.
The damage award covered the Korean-based Hynix’s sales in the United States
between June 2000 and the end of 2005. The jury said Hynix infringed
on Rambus’s SDRAM, DDR SDRAM and DDR2 memory products.
The Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus is also seeking a permanent injunction
against Hynix to stop the manufacture, use, sale or import of infringing
Hynix memory products. The issue of a permanent injunction will likely be
part of the third phase of the litigation expected to begin in the summer.
That trial will involve Hynix counterclaims to the enforceability of the
Rambus patents and allegations that Rambus defamed or otherwise impeded
market adoption of DDR SDRAM.
“We will continue … in our efforts to be fairly compensated for our patented
inventions,” John Danforth, senior vice president and general counsel at
Rambus, said in a statement.
Hynix originally filed the lawsuit in August 2000. The litigation sought
declaratory judgments that 11 Rambus patents are invalid and not infringed.
Rambus countersued and the case was eventually expanded to include 59 patent
claims from 14 Rambus products.
The trial judge subsequently permitted 10 claims to be presented to the
jury.
The long-running legal dispute began in 1996 when Intel decided to use
Rambus memory products.
DRAM manufacturers claimed Rambus’s technology was too expensive and adopted
the DDR2 chip as a new standard. Rambus claimed the DDR2 used patented
Rambus technology.
In addition to the still-pending Hynix case, Rambus filed infringement
lawsuits against Micron, Samsung and Nanya. Rambus is also suing the three
in separate actions involving more advanced memory products.
In addition, Rambus has a pending antitrust case against Micron, Hynix and
Samsung, claiming the three were part of an alleged boycott against Rambus
products.
